Stars and Planets

Sunday, March 31, 2013

M65 with Supernova SN 2013am. See older picture taken some years ago for comparison. I am proud to say I discovered this by my self March 30, but only to learn that K. Sugano Japan discovered this first March 21. Official name is M65 SN2013am.

Friday, September 28, 2012

M13 in Hercules, total 45 min exposure time in LRGB, C11 Celestron f10 with Apogee AltaF16M CCD. Guided with William Optic 110 and StarlightXpress Superstar. Stacked in MaxImDl and edited in Photoshop.
I need to collimate the C11 next time.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

The Galaxy NGC891 is 30 MLY from us in the constellation Andromeda. The image is taken in September 2012 using C11/f10 and Apogee AltaF16M on the AP1200 GTO. The galaxy is about 13x3 ArcMin at Mag 10.8.
The conditions were not good and only 40 min exposure in LRGB using 10 min exposures. Stacked in MaxImDl, no PhotoShop edit this time. Guiding with Williams Optics 110 and StarlightXpress Superstar. I hope to add more data to the image later.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

M65 is a beautiful galaxy in the constellation Leo. One of the three galaxies called Leo triplet. It is 35 MLY from us and was first discovered in 1780 by C. Messier.
The image is taken using Canon 40D (modified), AtroPhysics 1200 and a Celestron C11. 52 images at ISO 1600 and 6 min stacked in MaxIm and processed in Photoshop.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

The image contains about 30 galaxies in Hercules cluster of galaxies. In the middle the NGC 6050/IC 1179 (Arp 272) is a remarkable collision between two spiral galaxies. The galaxy cluster is part of the Great Wall of clusters and superclusters, the largest known structure in the universe. Arp 272 is located some 450 million light-years away from Earth.
5 subs 900 sec, ISO 1600 with AP1200, C11 at f10, guided with Williams Optics APO 110 mm and NexImage videocamera.

The Globular Cluster Messier 92 in Hercules is a beautiful cluser not far from M13.
It is 27 kLY from the Earth and a nice target for astrophoto as well as visual observing. The image is taken with AP 1200 and C11, Canon 40D plus Williams Optics 110 mm Williams Optics and NexImage for guiding. The image is made of 42 subs with 90-120-240 sec at ISO 1600.

24. of August this year, Oxford university astronomers discovered a Supernova called SN2011fe, in the Pinnwheel galaxy M101 in Ursa Minor. See the circle marker in the photo taken in 17 Sept 2009. The Supernova has brightened day by day since its discovery, quite astonishing! As comparison I have added the last picture I have taken of the galaxy in April 2009.
AP1200 with C1100 at f10, guided with Williams Optics APO 110 with NexImage videocamera. 11 images of 10 min, ISO 3200, Canon 40D modified.

The NGC6946 galaxy 1o MLY away between Cepheus and Cygnus is a spiral galaxy known to have had more than 10 Supernovas the last 100 years. As comparison, we believe the rate of Supernovas in the Milkyway is about 1-2 Supernovas every 100 year. But the last one was 400 years ago!
Image taken using AstroPhysics 1200 with Celestron C11 at f10, guided with Williams Optics APO 110 and NexImage video camera. 10 images of 10 min, ISO 1600.

Messier 33 in Triangulum is a beautiful galaxy 'only' 3 MLY from us.
Williams Optics 110 Refractor with FR0.8. Astro Phystics 1200 mount.
Canon 40D modified, 13x5min and 13x10 exposures ISO 1600.
With a diameter of about 50,000 light years, the Triangulum galaxy is the third largest member of the Local Group, a group of galaxies which also contains the Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy, and it may be a gravitationally bound companion of the Andromeda Galaxy. Triangulum may be home to 40 billion stars, compared to 400 billion for the Milky Way, and 1000 billion stars for Andromeda.[:)]

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Galaxy Messier 109, NGC3992 is a fine barred spiral galaxy in Ursa Major with Mag10,6 (13200 x fainter than Vega). It is about 46 MLY away from us. The faint galaxy to the left is UGC06969 (Mag15.4 - 132xfainter than M109) and the other one below the M109 is UGC06940(Mag16.7 - 275xfainter than M109). If you look even more carefully there are at least two more faint galaxies in the image.

Monday, January 11, 2010

The nebula was first observed by John Bevis in 1731, and corresponds to a bright supernova recorded by Chinese and Arab astronomers in 1054. About 6500 LY from us and 11 LY across. It is called the Crab Nebula here imaged in a Ha, Oiii and RGB sandwich. CPC11, 2000 mm with f 6,3. About 3 hours exposure time, 190 min, ISO1600 without filter. Camera Canon 40 D modified, guided, darks, flats.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

The nebula was first observed by John Bevis in 1731, and corresponds to a bright supernova recorded by Chinese and Arab astronomers in 1054. About 6500 LY from us and 11 LY across. It is called the Crab Nebula here imaged in a Ha, Oiii and RGB sandwich. CPC11, 2000 mm with f 6,3. About 3 hours exposure time, 130 min Ha, 20 min Oiii, 40 min RGB, ISO1600. Camera Canon 40 D modified, guided, darks, flats.

Friday, January 8, 2010

The Christmas Tree Nebula (upside down) including the Cone Nebula at the bottom is in constallation Monoceros. The top of the Cone Nebula has a bright star forming the christmas tree top. The bright bluee and red nebula in the middle of tht picture is the Foxfur nebula. About 2600 LY from us.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Rosette Nebula with NGC 2244 star cluster in its middle is beautiful. The mass of the nebula is estimated to be around 10,000 solar masses.The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of some 5,200 LY from Earth and measure roughly 130 LY in diameter. It is my first Ha picture. Conditions: minus 20 C and moonlight.Celestron ED80 - 600 mm at f7.5 piggyback on CPC 1100, Canon 40D modified, Astronomic 12nm Ha filter.16 x 10 min at ISO 1600. Darks and flats, guided with Stellarvue 200mm f4, NexImage video camera and MaxImDL.I will revisit the nebula on a later occation to get more data with and without filters.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

The NGC1977 is a reflection nebula in the constallation Orion. The nick name 'The Running Man' is a good one.1500 LY away from us, the light intensive stars in the region reflects all the dust and gas around them.26x5 min, ISO 1600 with CPC 11, 2800 mm, f10 and Canon 40D modified. Guided with Stellarvue 200 mm, f4 and NexImage. Darks.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The NGC 281 Nebula in Casseopeia - The Pacman Nebula, is quite hard to get. The field of view in my picture does not quite cover the whole nebula. I will have to come back on the target with larger field of view using my refractor later.

The Nebual is about 10 kLY from us and IC 1590 in the center is an open cluster of stars. It is believed to be a Nebula with star formation.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

The Blue Snowball - a planetary nebula - in constellation Andormeda is small, you need a larger telescope to see i good. Here I have used CPC 11oo, Focal length 2800, f10 with Canon 40D modified. 19x2 min ISO 800 and 8x4min ISO1600, guided with Celestron 80ED and NexImage videocamera.

Friday, September 11, 2009

The Estern part of the Veil Nebula. Celestron refractor 80ED, 600 mm f7.5, piggyback on CPC 11, Canon 40D modified, 7x20 min ISO 1600. Darks and flats, guided. I will go back to this target when I have some serious filters!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

NGC6960, The Western Veil nebula in Cygnus is beautiful. The large star is 52 Cygnus, mag about 4. The image has been obtained by Celestron 80ED refractor 600mm f7,5 - piggy back on CPC 11, Canon 40D modified DSLR, 14x10 min at ISO 1600 and full moon. 20 darks, no flats. Guided with NexImage and Stellarvue 200mmf4 guide scope. Full frame.

Monday, September 7, 2009

The North American nebula, Canon 40D modified, Celestron ED80 600mm f7,5, 6x10min ISO800, 20 darks, no flats. Guided. Binned 2x2. Under full Moon - not at all good conditions.I really need to get some filters to enhance the nebulas. I plan to come back to that.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

This image shows 10 galaxies I identified in the constellation Virgo. By a closer look there are even many more there, but you need a magnified view to see them.From left to right across the picture are:M60 (elliptic galaxy)at 55MLY with its companion NGC4647, lower in the image NGC4667, M59 (elliptic galaxy) 60 MLY, high up NGC4606 and NGC4607, M58 (spiral galaxy) at 68 MLY, lower - The Siamese Twins NGC4568 and NGC4567, finally a little higher up NGC4564. All NGCs are galaxies. In M60 there is a Black Hole with 3.4 billions solar masses.15 subs each 9 min, ISO800 with Canon 40D using C80ED, guided. Not ideal conditions, no real dark skies here in May.

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Welcome to my Blog

My interest in Astronomy goes back to when I was 10 years old and started looking at stars with binoculars. Since then I have always been fascinated by the Universe.

Astrophotography is a difficult game and I am certainly a newbie here. The pictures are mostly made out of multiple subframes stacked and aligned. Since I am using a regular DSLR cameras the noise is high and sensitivity low compared to what you get from the more expensive CCD astronomy cameras. But you can still get decent result if you are patience and have stamina to use one night to get pictures and one day to stack and process them. Anyway I hope you will enjoy watching.

Some help for first time visitors:

I use the term Mxx or Messier xx, I refer to object # xx in Charles Messier's catalogue, first published in 1774. Messier objects

A more comprehensive catalogue of galaxies and objects is the NGC catalogue also with its number. It contains open and globular star clusters, diffuse and planetary nebulae, supernova remnants and galaxies of all types. List of NGC objects .

Apparent magnitude refer to the how the light is seen by us. A minus figure would be bright object, like the Moon -12, the star Sirius -1.5, Vega 0, Andromeda galaxy about 4. Magnitude 4-6 would be the best you can see with naked eye, in a light polluted district (which we have almost everyone) the limit would be like magnitude 3. With a telescope and a camera I can take pictures up to magnitude 12-15 without too much trouble. The really faint objects in the sky.

Telescopes and cameras:

Today I am the lucky owner of four telescopes, and I certainly are using them as often as I can, for visual viewing and astro photography. My telescopes are: